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Time Machine backing up way too much, too often.

Ubuntu

Ubuntu

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Jul 3, 2005
2,184
526
UK/US
Greetings all,

I've been backing up my iMac with Time Machine since I got it around a week ago and I've noticed that it seems to back up around 50GB every day. I use the iMac for development (iOS, web development and photoshop) but I'm not making such big changes everyday. I have to have the external HD plugged in as it has a lot of my work on it but everytime the iMac wakes up from sleep or is restarted Time Machine backs up another 15-20GB. I just tested it, I've been using the iMac since 14:00 GMT and not worked on any files, just browsing and a bit of gaming and its now trying to back up 17GB.

Its also doing this way too often, is there a way to state "Back up on this date" or "back up every 2 days" without unplugging the harddrive?

Thanks
 
Navigate to /System » Library » LaunchDaemons.

There you'll find a file named com.apple.backupd-auto.plist. Open it with TextEdit, and look for this section:

<key>StartInterval</key>
<integer>3600</integer>


Alter 3600 (number of seconds) to your desired back up interval.

I do mine daily.
 
It's also worth noting that some virtual machine formats will not be updated differentially, since Time Machine can't handle their binary formats (and so it does a full copy, each hour).
 
Like redwarrior I use TimeMachineEditor also, but let it backup once a week, early every Monday morning. If I make any major changes between times I just turn Time Machine on manually for one backup then back off again and let Time Machine do it's thing Monday morning again.
 
Time Machine Editor works great for me also. I backup once a day at 1030PM. It would be nice for Lion to include some more options for when Time Machine runs...
 
Ubuntu said:
Greetings all,

I've been backing up my iMac with Time Machine since I got it around a week ago and I've noticed that it seems to back up around 50GB every day. I use the iMac for development (iOS, web development and photoshop) but I'm not making such big changes everyday. I have to have the external HD plugged in as it has a lot of my work on it but everytime the iMac wakes up from sleep or is restarted Time Machine backs up another 15-20GB. I just tested it, I've been using the iMac since 14:00 GMT and not worked on any files, just browsing and a bit of gaming and its now trying to back up 17GB.

Its also doing this way too often, is there a way to state "Back up on this date" or "back up every 2 days" without unplugging the harddrive?

Thanks
Click to expand...

One thing that I noticed was that it would always back up my VMWare Windows image. I didn't need it to do that particularly and once I added that to the 'do not back up list' my back up times were much quicker!
 
I use BackupLoupe to review each large snapshot taken by Time Machine. When I see TM is backing up something I don't want backed up, I then go to: System Preferences, Time Machine, Options, "Exclude this items from backup" and add it to the list.

http://www.soma-zone.com/BackupLoupe/
 
Great suggestions. I'm going to give the Backuploupe a try. Thanks all.
 
Is there an option to "manually backup"? Where I can leave my external hdd plugged in and click a "backup" button and let time machine do its thing, and time machine will not do anything until I click a "backup manually" button?
 
curtisinoc said:
Is there an option to "manually backup"? Where I can leave my external hdd plugged in and click a "backup" button and let time machine do its thing, and time machine will not do anything until I click a "backup manually" button?
Click to expand...

i guess change the backup interval to a really long time, and then use the "back up now" button in the time machine menu
 
curtisinoc said:
Is there an option to "manually backup"? Where I can leave my external hdd plugged in and click a "backup" button and let time machine do its thing, and time machine will not do anything until I click a "backup manually" button?
Click to expand...

Yep - very straightforward. Turn time machine off in the control panel (think of that as the scheduled backup). Make sure "Show Time Machine status in the menu bar" is on. Now just do "Backup Now" from the time machine menu.

I find the default settings work well if I have the VM's disabled, and I also remove my ~/Downloads folder because I'll transfer junk there. While it does backup every hour, it does trim out those backups over time - I think you get hourlies for the past day or so, dailies for the past month or so, then just weeklies.. If you fill the backup disk, then it just starts tossing the oldest stuff.
 
omvs said:
Yep - very straightforward. Turn time machine off in the control panel (think of that as the scheduled backup). Make sure "Show Time Machine status in the menu bar" is on. Now just do "Backup Now" from the time machine menu.

I find the default settings work well if I have the VM's disabled, and I also remove my ~/Downloads folder because I'll transfer junk there. While it does backup every hour, it does trim out those backups over time - I think you get hourlies for the past day or so, dailies for the past month or so, then just weeklies.. If you fill the backup disk, then it just starts tossing the oldest stuff.
Click to expand...

Good info...thanks (I'm getting my first Mac - iMac really soon). If I schedule a weekly time machine backup, lets say for 2:00 a.m. every Monday, and my iMac is in sleep mode, will time machine wake my machine up for the scheduled backup?
 
"Is there an option to "manually backup"? Where I can leave my external hdd plugged in and click a "backup" button and let time machine do its thing, and time machine will not do anything until I click a "backup manually" button?"

Yes there is, and it doesn't have anything to do with Time Machine.

And it will give you a much better backup system than will TM run daily.

It's called backing up to a bootable clone, and you need either CarbonCopyCloner or SuperDuper to do it.

CCC is free from bombich.com --- I suggest you try that first.

It's very easy to learn and use.

Your first backup should be a "backup everything" type clone to an external drive. When done (it will take some time the very first time, because it's "backing up everything"), you will have a bootable "clone" with all your files in POFF (plain ol' finder format). You can boot from the clone just as if it were your internal drive.

Your subsequent backups should be "incremental". You can choose from a checklist what you want updated or not (I choose everything). CCC will even let you 'archive" files that are removed from the incremental backup volume. (note: normally, when you delete a file on your main drive, the incremental backup will ALSO delete that file from the backup clone).

Either CCC or SuperDuper will server you much better if you ever have a "moment of extreme need" when something on your internal drive has failed and you need to get going again.
 
Fishrrman said:
"Is there an option to "manually backup"? Where I can leave my external hdd plugged in and click a "backup" button and let time machine do its thing, and time machine will not do anything until I click a "backup manually" button?"

Yes there is, and it doesn't have anything to do with Time Machine.

And it will give you a much better backup system than will TM run daily.

It's called backing up to a bootable clone, and you need either CarbonCopyCloner or SuperDuper to do it.

CCC is free from bombich.com --- I suggest you try that first.

It's very easy to learn and use.

Your first backup should be a "backup everything" type clone to an external drive. When done (it will take some time the very first time, because it's "backing up everything"), you will have a bootable "clone" with all your files in POFF (plain ol' finder format). You can boot from the clone just as if it were your internal drive.

Your subsequent backups should be "incremental". You can choose from a checklist what you want updated or not (I choose everything). CCC will even let you 'archive" files that are removed from the incremental backup volume. (note: normally, when you delete a file on your main drive, the incremental backup will ALSO delete that file from the backup clone).

Either CCC or SuperDuper will server you much better if you ever have a "moment of extreme need" when something on your internal drive has failed and you need to get going again.
Click to expand...

thanks for info . . do you use "time machine" at all? or just CCC?
 
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